The middle of April has brought us the latest release of the Annual Population Survey. The survey is the most comprehensive socio-economic picture we have for a range of geographies from the national to the local level. In this blog, we will examine the information on labour markets for January to December 2017 and compare it to the same period last year.
Starting at the regional level, there was an improvement of labour market conditions. Employment has reached 72.4% in West Midlands showing an increase of 1.3%. The unemployment fell by 0.3% at 5.4%. However, these figures still show lower than average performance in the region compared to the national levels.
In terms of gender differences, the gap between males and females in the employment rates in 2017 was 10.3%, second only to London’s and higher than the country average. However, it is good news that this gap has significantly reduced from last year with a drop of 3.1%. The gender gap in terms of unemployment is much smaller at 0.3% (higher for males) compared to 0% last year and similar to the country average. The difference in the measurements of employment (employed over total population) and unemployment (unemployed over those employed and unemployed) means that the gap is related to differential economic activity rates. Indeed in West Midlands, the economic activity rate of males is at 82% (UK average 83.3%) compared to the one for females standing at 70.9% (UK average 73.3%).
At the sub-regional level, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) had the second largest increase of employment among the rest of the combined authorities. However, it still has the lowest employment rate at 67.3%. Unemployment has also dropped by 0.5% but it’s the highest in this group of localities. Similar to the regional level, the gender gap in the employment rates is significant but dropping considerably (-3.1% compared to 2016) whilst the unemployment gap has increased by 1.2% in the last year and now stands at 1.1% higher for males. These figures suggest that there is a change in the labour market with more females entering mainly as employees. This is confirmed by higher female activity rates for 2017 (65.7% compared to 62.9% in 2016).
Within the WMCA there is wide variation in the statistics. As expected due to its size, Birmingham has the lowest employment rate and the highest unemployment rate. The gender employment gap is worse and increasing in Sandwell and Dudley whilst there are significant variations from year to year for the unemployment gender difference probably due to small sample sizes.
Overall, the statistics show an improvement of labour market outcomes in the region and sub-regional geographies. There is evidence of an improvement in terms of gender gaps in employment associated with greater female participation in the labour market. There is, however, room to further improve performance and reach/overtake the national average.
By Dr. Tasos Kitsos, Research Fellow, City-REDI, University of Birmingham
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Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of City-REDI or the University of Birmingham